[NatureNS] Try two: Fw: Antlion larvae

From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>
To: NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 19:59:04 -0300
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Hello: for some reason my first send seems to have got lost. Second try. DW
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David & Alison Webster" <dwebster@glinx.com>
To: <NatureNS@chebucto.ns.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 9:16 AM
Subject: Antlion larvae


> Dear All,                        Aug 6, 2013
>    I went out this afternoon to capture some antlion larvae from pits in 
> forest soil that had been only slightly sorted by water. So there were 
> lots of fine roots, assorted organic debris, pebbles etc in which the 
> larvae could hide after the fines were sifted through an 8' diam. 2-mm 
> sieve.
>
>     And I nearly got skunked [found 3] because, as I gradually remembered 
> from having done this with more favourable soil in 1999, these things can 
> hide in plain sight. So finding one of these in a large handfull of coarse 
> debris resembles looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
>
>    To judge from my experience in Kentville, they favor recently 
> wind-sorted sand because being of uniform diameter it is very unstable 
> when dry. That is also the least difficult medium in which to find them 
> because almost everything will pass a 2-mm sieve. This habitat was 
> generated by gravel extraction and, so far as I know, obliterated by 
> further gravel extraction.
>
>    If you get to the sand dunes of SW Port Mouton, or other wind-sorted 
> sand habitats, be on the watch for antlion funnels. Small insects that 
> stumble over the lip of an unstable sand funnel slide down to the middle 
> and become antlion fodder.
>
> Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
>
> 

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